Last weekend, we decided to hit the Metro Park Farmpark in Kirtland. The park system has a farm center complete with animals and machinery. Being that one of the new activities that we do with Finn is sounds that animals make, we thought it would be the perfect time to introduce her to the cows again. My mom, Finn & I visited the Farmpark back in last October, but at 9 months, it's very doubtful that she remembers anything about meeting cows for the first time.
At the entrance of the park, there is a field that has goats and sheep in it. She was a little nervous at first of the sheep that were laying against the fence. But after seeing that I wasn't afraid of them and was petting them, she decided that it was okay for her to be brave and reach out and touch the fleece of the sheep.
After petting the sheep, we headed into the park and immediately went into the dairy center. They only have five cows at the Farmpark and they are all different breeds (Holstein, Guernsey, Jersey, Milking Shorthand, and Randall, in case anyone is interested). The milking shorthand had actually just calved three days prior. They had the teeny bull in its own pen. He was quite rambunctious and Finn was quite scared of him.
They also had a two month old Randall bull calf as well. He was used to the people coming to look at him and wasn't as interactive as the Milking Shorthand was. I was totally infatuated with the three day old calf. He wasn't afraid of or desensitized to people yet. He would jump around in the stall whenever I talked with him. I had told E that I could have stayed in that dairy center all day.
We had arrived just in time to see them start a milking demonstration. All the little kids got to hand milk the cow and pet her as she was in the demonstration stanchion. Again, Lady surprised me and and had absolutely no issue with petting the cow.
E is actually standing behind with her, pushing her towards the hole (hence the funny face).
They were having an antique tractor show later in the month and there was a small display of two tractors to give guests a sneak peek at what was in store later. They had a John Deere tractor that had stairs going up the back to the seat so that kids could climb on and "drive" a tractor. Yet again, Lady seemed unimpressed.
But then we went down to the "petting" area of the Farmpark. The girl was in love! There were pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, bunnies, and horses. She was running all over the place. Some of her faces were priceless.
Checking out the ducks, chickens, and turkey.
Inside the show arena (for the horse demonstrations) was a particular lamb that was VERY vocal, bleating his little heart out. She wasn't very sure of this loud, scary thing (although it was tiny and soft).
We also got to pet a little pony. She was petrified of the pony initially. She wanted back in her stroller. Once in, she reached for the bar that is used to keep her in the seat and tried to lock herself back in her stroller. But with Mama going over and petting the pony first, she became brave enough to go with me.
After looking at all the draft horses, show horses, and ponies, we walked around outside, but it got hot quite quickly. I made us stop back in the dairy center one last time before we left.
Telling Mama what a cow says... "Mooooooo" of course.
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